Most Ardently: A Pride & Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa Published by Feiwel & Friends on January 16, 2024
Genres: Young Adult Fiction / Classics, Young Adult Fiction / Historical / Europe, Young Adult Fiction / LGBTQ, Young Adult Fiction / Romance / Historical
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781250869791This bittersweet Pride & Prejudice remix follows a trans boy yearning for the freedom to live openly, centering queerness in a well-known story of longing and subverting society’s patriarchal and cisheteronormative expectations.
London, 1812. Oliver Bennet feels trapped. Not just by the endless corsets, petticoats and skirts he's forced to wear on a daily basis, but also by society's expectations. The world—and the vast majority of his family and friends—think Oliver is a girl named Elizabeth. He is therefore expected to mingle at balls wearing a pretty dress, entertain suitors regardless of his interest in them, and ultimately become someone's wife. But Oliver can't bear the thought of such a fate. He finds solace in the few times he can sneak out of his family's home and explore the city rightfully dressed as a young gentleman. It's during one such excursion when Oliver becomes acquainted with Darcy, a sulky young man who had been rude to "Elizabeth" at a recent social function. But in the comfort of being out of the public eye, Oliver comes to find that Darcy is actually a sweet, intelligent boy with a warm heart. And not to mention incredibly attractive.
As Oliver is able to spend more time as his true self, often with Darcy, part of him dares begin to hope that his dream of love and life as a man could be possible. But suitors are growing bolder—and even threatening—and his mother is growing more desperate to see him settled into an engagement. Oliver will have to choose: Settle for safety, security, and a life of pretending to be something he's not, or risk it all for a slim chance at freedom, love, and a life that can be truly, honestly his own.
This book warmed my black soul so much!! It was delightful and sweet and just all around wonderful.
The familiar characters are still present, along with many of the more popular quotes. Of course, the major shift is in Oliver’s (Elizabeth) thoughts on his dysphoria and societal expectations. Even without the transgender aspect the societal expectations for women in this time period leave a lot to be desired. For instance, Charlotte in this book is in a romantic/sexual relationship with a woman, who’s husband is off fighting in the war therefore can visit Charlotte frequently. Yet, Charlotte still wants to be married, to settle for a life of domestication with a man. It offers her security. No matter your opinions on the Alphabet Mafia (but if you’re at my blog I’d hope they’d be positive), the fact that women had such few options and so little say in their futures was horrid.
The tension in the story is not Wickham going off with Lydia but actually finding out about Oliver and Elizabeth being the same person. Those few chapters/pages were horrific to read because of how Wickham acts. Obviously, we’re all used to Wickham being a villainous character. In this novel, it’s ratcheted up a few notches were Wickham’s focus on finding a wife and breeding her just makes you want to vomit (or at least it did for me).
The historical aspect was stretched quite a bit in the book. Did I really care? Nope! I want all the happily ever afters for my historically queer peoples/couples. However, I do want to point out that all of Oliver’s family was accepting of him and supportive, not just with him being a boy but his relationship with Darcy. There’s also some legalities at the end that could be argued their a bit far-fetched. Novoa does have an historical note commenting about why he wrote it this way. Plus, it’s supposed to be a YA romance novel. I didn’t read this to be historically accurate!
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